Company Compares Your Actual Diet To An Ideal One

Mixed Grill

September 24, 1989|By PRUE SALASKY Staff Writer

Dieting by disk seems to have taken off. Just last month, I extolled the virtues of The Good Health and Diet Program, a personalized computer plan for achieving and maintaining optimum weight and nutrition put out by Diet Research Inc. I noted that its use was limited to those with daily access to an IBM-compatible personal computer.

Now, Nutrex, a new Virginia Beach-based company, is offering computerized diets in which they do the analysis for you. All you have to do is fill out a hand-written, three-day record of your eating and drinking habits, and Nutrex feeds it into the computer. (The Diet Program operated on a week's minimum input and had a constantly evolving counseling system based on your progress.)

Nutrex offers a one-time analysis of your actual diet as compared to your ideal diet, though of course the process can be repeated.

Mary Sue Sanderson, a registered dietitian who worked for cardiologists for five years, set up the company to offer "personal computerized nutrition analysis by mail." She uses Nutritionist III software, which she says is "the most usable with the most reliable database." Similar to the Diet Program, her program analyzes 60 different nutrients and compares your intake with your optimum diet.

Janice Powers, a registered dietitian at Mary Immaculate Hospital in Newport News, says the program also can be used to get the nutritional breakdown of recipes.

Sanderson says any health-conscious person can benefit from the analysis, but in particular it helps groups with specific needs, like vegetarians or athletes.

For $20 and the detailed record of food and drink consumed over two weekdays and a weekend, Sanderson returns a report listing deficiencies and excesses in the individual's diet. "It's very thorough," she says of the program and report.

So if you don't have a computer but like the idea of systematic nutritional advice for adults and children, contact Nutrex, Nutrition and Dietary Consultants, P.O. Box 1414, Virginia Beach 23451, 422-1036.

On a related topic, "The Healing Foods - The Ultimate Authority on the Curative Power of Nutrition" by Patricia Hausman and Judith Hurley has been published by the Rodale Press. It costs $24.95, and its 500 pages contain information on health-giving foods, diseases that can be alleviated by nutrition and recipes. The entries are alphabetized.

The book is refreshing in that it doesn't dwell on culinary evils; it promotes health-inducing foods. Peas rank high as a wonder food in being heart-healthy, useful in diabetes control and a positive influence in cancer prevention. Parsnips make a good fiber-rich alternative to bran.

And, of course, there's a heading of oats and oat bran. Typical of the book's freewheeling, informative style is the advice that there's no difference between regular and quick-cooking oats when it comes to wholesomeness, only in the texture. But it does warn that instant oats may have added salt. The authors recommend storing oat bran covered in the refrigerator and suggest tucking in a vanilla bean for flavor.

Hausman, a former staff nutritionist for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, is the author of "The Right Dose," "The Calcium Bible" and "Foods that Fight Cancer." Hurley has authored "Healthy Microwave Cooking" and "Rodale's Garden-Fresh Cooking."

They talk about Valencia and Temple oranges as the best for home juicing and the qualities of different grapefruit varieties. By this approach, the authors prompt the question - although they don't voice it themselves - of why apples are marketed by variety but citrus fruits most often get generic labelling. Possibly the answer lies in consumer familiarity and concern with a local crop like apples.

Although "The Healing Foods" is far from comprehensive, its mixture of health advice, cooking tips and lesser-known nutritional information makes for fascinating, hard-to-put-down reading.

If you can't justify the expense for yourself, put it on your gift list as suited for anyone interested in health or cooking.